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The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Greek φόβος phobos, "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental disorder (e.g. agoraphobia), in chemistry to describe chemical aversions (e.g. hydrophobic), in biology to describe organisms that dislike certain conditions (e.g ...
If humans interact with bats, these traits become potentially dangerous to humans. Depending on the culture, bats may be symbolically associated with positive traits, such as protection from certain diseases or risks, rebirth, or long life, but in the West, bats are popularly associated with darkness, malevolence, witchcraft, vampires, and death.
Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. [1] It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") because its victims would panic when offered liquids to drink.
Bats' biggest boon to humans may be in their diet. A single bat can eat thousands of insects per night, ridding the air of mosquitoes and other pests. Bats may be a scary Halloween symbol, but ...
Big brown bats infrequently test positive for the rabies virus; of the 8,273 individuals submitted for testing across the United States in 2011, 314 (3.8%) tested positive for the virus. [5] There is a known bias in testing, however, as healthy bats rarely come into contact with humans, and therefore sick bats are more likely to be tested. [61]
In Ancient Macedonia, people carried amulets made out of bat bones. Bats were considered the luckiest of all animals, thus their bones were sure to bring good luck. In China, bats are also considered good luck or bringers of happiness, as the Chinese word Fu is a homophone for both "bat" and "happiness". [11]
Typhoons result in indirect mortality as well: because typhoons defoliate the trees, they make megabats more visible and thus more easily hunted by humans. Food resources for the bats become scarce after major storms, and megabats resort to riskier foraging strategies such as consuming fallen fruit off the ground.
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